A question i was asked just recently, the answer may depend on how Summer is defined, if June, July and August then ytes Summer has finished and we are now into meterological Autumn! the name of the months of Summer and of course Summer itself is historically defined and suits statistical purposes along with other reasons, if however May and September are included or perhaps September preceded August, but followed June and July then that is a different take on Summer so now Summer continues....

So September so far model forecasts were showing wide variations for the early (1-10) of the month with swings of temperature and prolonged often thundery rain especially 3rd, 5th & 8th overall these came out broadly correct, for Birmingham maximum temperature averaged near 20C though varied from 14 to 24C, rainfall totalled 30mm though with 5 dry days and sunshine stopped at 25hrs with 4 dull days being a POOR, the 1st since 1972.  Today we see a rapid change as cold(er) Arctic Maritime air sweeps southwards behind a cold front as shown on the 2 forecast charts below l-r is for dew point temperature and temperature at 850hPa for today at 12UTC and clearly shows the Am airmass (shown as green) moving south and replacing Tm air to the south, alongside is the temperature trace since 7th until 13UTC today, curiously the highest temperature which will go into the climate actually occurred at 21UTC on 9th (19.9C), the highest temperature today reached for a short time 16C fell quickly to 13C

Forecasts for the next 10 days and beyond keep mid-month cool, cloudy (dull) and generally dry with an anticyclone becoming established resulting in mean maximum around 16C, coolest since 1994, driest since 2019 and vying for top dullest between 2002 and 1945 both with less than 20hours, combining to give the POOR(est) start since 1972 and taking the extended Summer (May to September) also since 1972.  The forecast meteogram extends to 25th shows that late-month (Summer) may have

another significant change to warm (max above 20C, dry and sunny) possibly the warmest since 1895 (mean max 23C), driest since 2013 (Nil) and >60hrs sunshine sunniest since 1959 being graded GOOD and the best since 2013 so has Summer ended?  the bell tells all?

John